The overarching brief for our PS projects is ‘Making to rethink the repair of existing building and brownfield sites.’

The PS1 project’s focus is on making a series of models to explore architectural repair of an existing barn structure. Employing digital and physical tools inspired by archaeological reconstruction techniques, the projects centres on 1:1 experimental models and large-scale architectural prototypes.

We approach making as a mode of enquiry to register the barn’s current state and content. The sustainable agenda for the project embraces the barn’s structure and contents as the materials for adaptive reuse. The atelier takes repair seriously, it is a part of rethinking the brownfield site, where environmental issues are often created by treating materials and dilapidated buildings as waste to be disposed and cleared to landfill. The proposed programme for the old barn was to be a repair and restoration summer school. The summer school would involve a series of annual build activities carried out by successive architecture summer school groups. In addition to the repair programme, we have considered basic amenities needed for the Summer School participants and their provision communicated through a 1:200 site model.

‘Making to rethink the repair of a brownfield site.’ Toddbrook reservoir is an unconventional brown field site, it is inextricably linked to a hydrological system and the challenges of water management. The recent, partial failure of the dam has provided a heightened awareness of the dynamics of water and its impact on sites and conurbations downstream. The uncertain future of the reservoir (currently drained to prevent flooding) has revealed a once submerged valley. In a temporary state of disuse, the valley slopes offer an opportunity to sustainably reimagine an architectural prototype for brownfield sites located by rivers.

The project begins through making a series of models to explore a return to site. Experimental 1:1 sectional models explored the physical properties of site including the ground strata to better understand for instance, porosity, vegetation growth and the impacts of water level change and flood risk. The programme for the project engages with the current housing crisis in the UK through designing a multi-generational house employing passive design principles and a fabric first approach, and a tradition of experimental self-build projects.